A non-invasive longitudinal method that is sensitive and objective for
quantifying progressive loss of neurons in normal aging brains and brains
that suffer from a neurodegenerative disease is provided. The method also
provides clinicians, patients and drug companies with a method for
evaluating the efficacy of various treatments and interventions by
assessing a change in brain integrity. The method determines and localizes
a change in brain integrity in a compartment of a brain from at least
structural images and metabolite brain images, which are acquired for at
least two time instances. The time period between two time instances is
dependent on the disease pathology and disease progression and could, for
instance, be at least 3 months between time instances as well as at least
6 or 12 months between time instances.
